Robert Zemeckis to Be Honored as Director of the Year at Palm Springs Film Fest

Robert Zemeckis

The award will be presented at the festival's Awards Gala on Jan. 5.

Robert Zemeckis will be honored as Director of the Year at the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s awards gala, which will be held Jan. 5 at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

“For 35 years, Robert Zemeckis has been creating some of the most iconic and indelible images in cinema, garnering international acclaim as a filmmaker of extraordinary vision,” festival chairman Harold Matzner said. “In his latest work, Flight, Zemeckis continues to tell fascinating stories by combining strong characters with groundbreaking visual effects, which includes one of the most memorable plane crashes in cinematic history, while following the compelling emotional journey of Denzel Washington’s character of an emotionally damaged man dealing with addiction.”

An Academy Award winner for Forrest Gump, Zemeckis also has directed such movies as Cast Away, Back to the Future and The Polar Express. Flight, which was released by Paramount on Nov. 2, has grossed more than $75 million domestically to date.